Pineapple Brown Butter Cake

This cake started out as a figment of my imagination. It started out as a hot buttered rum pineapple cake. I started it with a pineapple cake with a hot buttered rum soak and brown butter buttercream, but there was no pineapple to be found! It was delicious, but heavy AF. The brown butter and hot buttered rum was too much richness without the tart of the pineapple. I tried the cake again. Still not what I wanted. THIS TIME I think I have it where I want it! I scrapped the hot buttered rum sauce because that brown butter is doing kind of the same thing for this cake. Now we have a pineapple-y cake with a pineapple soak that breaks through some of that richness of the brown butter. This recipe makes three 8-inch round cakes and tons of buttercream. I warned you. You're gonna need a lot of butter. And a gym membership. Sorry, not sorry.

For the Cake:
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs
2 c granulated sugar
2 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 c cake flour

1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 c buttermilk
7 oz by weight of crushed pineapple  *you're going to buy a 20 oz can of crushed pineapple drain it and save the juice!*
Juice of 1/2 a lemon *we will use the other half later*
1/2 c *ish* pineapple juice *see, the juice, and you'll use the juice in other places as well* **What I did was put the juice of half a lemon in a measuring cup, and then filled up the rest of the way to a half cup with pineapple juice

1. Preheat oven to 350F and prepare three 8-inch round cake pans with goop.
2. Combine vegetable oil and butter in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment.
3. Gradually add in the granulated sugar and whip until light and fluffy.
4. Add in eggs and vanilla to the sugar mixture.
5. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
6. Pour 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the sugar mixture and mix to combine.
7. Pour the buttermilk into sugar mixture and combine.
8. Pour another 1/3 of dry.
9. Pour the lemon and pineapple juice in and mix to combine.
10. Pour in the last 1/3 of the dry ingredients.
11. Add the crushed pineapple and stir to incorporate.
12. Divide the batter between the three cake pans. Bake for 22 - 27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
13. Allow to cool slightly before turning out on a cooling rack to cool completely before assembly.

For the Soak:
1/2 c pineapple soda *I used Fanta*
1/2 c pineapple juice
Juice of that other 1/2 a lemon

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce it by half.

For the Buttercream:
4 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
5 1/2 (ish) c powdered sugar, sifted
Pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp pineapple juice

1. Start by browning 2 sticks of the butter. *You will want to do this a bit in advance so that it can come back up to room temp before making the buttercream. Really it's easiest if you do this the day before.* Put 2 sticks of butter into a medium saucepan on medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir constantly. At first it will look really foamy, but then it will calm down a bit so that you can see it start to change color. Pull off the heat when it gets to an amber color- this took me about 5 minutes. Make sure you get all those brown bits! Those are the best. Allow to cool before using. Here are two videos from the first time that I browned butter. I think they help if you're browning butter for the first time and are freaking out a bit.

2. Combine the cooled (hopefully back to room temperature) browned butter with the other 2 sticks of butter in a stand mixer fixed with paddle attachment. Stir to combine.

3. Slowly add in powdered sugar, incorporating after each addition.
4. Add pinch of salt, vanilla, and pineapple juice and incorporate. Scrape down the sides, and allow to mix for a minute or so to incorporate some air. Then it's ready to use!

Assembly:
1. Put a dollop of buttercream on a cake stand and add first layer of cake.
2. With a pastry brush, brush the cake with the pineapple soak.
3. Put a layer of buttercream on top.
4. Rinse and repeat with the other two layers. Cover the cake completely once done.
5. Pour yourself a cup of coffee or a rum drink and enjoy yourself! You've earned it!

Graham Crackers

So as you know, it is summer, and that means lots of outdoor activities and campfires, and that means s'mores! Well, I have some awesome marshmallows already, but I wanted to try my hand at graham crackers. These are not like your store bought crackers. These are fatties. They have a great warming scent, a little chew, and a nice crumb. Overall, they go great with a slab of chocolate and a graham cracker sized marshmallow! This recipe makes 24 large crackers.

Ingredients: 
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c unsalted butter, cold
1/3 c honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 tbsp (ish) heavy cream (or milk is fine)- I really started using about 7 tbsp or so, and it makes the dough more pliable to work with. 

1. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in large bowl. *You can also do this in a food processor, but mine is tiny, so here we are.
2. Grate in butter and combine until a coarse meal texture. *Grating makes the butter into smaller pieces, and it is easier to combine. **If you are using a food processor, just pulse in your cubed butter until coarse meal.
3. Add honey and vanilla into flour mixture and stir to combine.
4. Add in heavy cream. Start with 4 tbsp and see how it is. You are looking to have your mixture just come together. It is a little dry, but it should stick together when you press it in your hand. It may take more or less cream depending on the humidity. It takes me generally 5 tbsp (ish).

5. Turn out dough onto a clean surface. Work the dough to combine (but try to work it as little as possible). 
6. Roll out crackers to about 1/8 inch thick (although the ones pictured were a bit fatter than that). Other recipes that I looked at say to chill the dough before rolling out, but then it's a bitch to roll out, so if yo want to do that, just come with a bit of aggression and some forearm strength. Otherwise, you can just do what I do, and say fuck it, and just roll them out; I haven't noticed a big change in texture or anything. 
7. Cut crackers into rectangles. *I also poked holes in them so they looked more graham cracker-y. Chill again for 10-20 minutes before baking. **You do want to do this chilling step though. 

8. While chilling, preheat oven to 350F.
9. Bake crackers for 15-22 minutes. *Mine took 18 minutes. If you make them a bit thinner, they take about 12 - 15 minutes. 
10. Allow to cool before eating! Also a perfect snack for coffee!

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

As I said a few posts back, I am trying my hand at recipe creation. I have delved into my true love- cake. For the first recipe that I wanted to try, I decided on chocolate cake. Why chocolate cake? I really don't know. I'm not a huge chocolate person. I'm a lemon person. Maybe I was feeling philanthropic and wanted to give to all my chocolate-loving friends. I don't know. Anyway, I went down the rabbit-hole of ratios again, so I will give you my measurements in both weights and American measures for the cake- this way you can see the ratios in action if you're also trying to figure out your ratio life.


Here's general information I found about cake ratios from this website:
Flour and sugar should be the same weight.
Eggs and butter (or fat- in this case I used oil) should be the same weight
Liquids (including eggs but not including fat) should be the same weight OR more than sugars
Generally 1 tsp of baking powder per cup of flour (if you have a more acidic base, sub some of that for baking soda as well)
Are you scared yet? Don't be! I swear I made a recipe with these ideas and it worked.

Okay, so let's get into what I have settled on as my chocolate cake recipe. This is enough cake for a three layer 8-inch round cake OR 24 regular sized cupcakes (plus a little extra).

For the batter:
2 c granulated sugar (14 oz)
2 1/2 c flour (11.5 oz)
1 c cocoa powder (2.5 oz - combined with the flour to make same weight as sugar)
3 eggs (5.8 oz)
3/4 c vegetable oil (5.8 oz - this is slightly over 3/4 c, but I did my best with giving an American equivalent)
2 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c boiling water (7.3 oz) *I just put mine in a clean coffee pot.
1/2 c buttermilk (4 oz)
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease three 8-inch round pans using goop.
2. Combine sugar and vegetable oil in stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment.
3. Add eggs one at a time until incorporated. Add in vanilla extract as well.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
5. Alternate dry ingredients and buttermilk, incorporating each into the batter before adding more. Start and end with the dry ingredients.
6. Add the hot water *make sure your speed is on the lowest!* to the batter a little at a time. Once all incorporated, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and then turn to medium-high speed and whip for one minute. This batter will look really loose (see below), but that's how it should be.

7. Pour batter evenly into cake pans.
8. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
9. Let cool on cooling rack. Turn out cakes when still a bit warm. Allow to cool completely before icing.

For the buttercream frosting:
4 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature *yes, this is pretty butter-heavy; trust me, it's delicious
1 c cocoa powder
4 c powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

1. Put butter into stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment.
2. Sift cocoa powder and powdered sugar together. *I don't sift unless I need to. You know this, but with a frosting, it's best to sift.
3. Pour sugar mixture into butter a little at a time until incorporated. Add salt and vanilla.

Assembly:
1. Place a dollop of frosting on your cake board to hold layers in place.
2. If the cake layers are a bit uneven, level off tops with a serrated knife.
3. Place one layer down and add a bit of buttercream to cover the layer.
4. Add second layer of cake with another layer of buttercream.
5. Add final layer of cake and cover entire cake in buttercream.

Lemon Macarons

I believe I have stated that macarons are my favorite thing. What's something you could eat 40 of and totally be okay? Macarons. Maybe you're thinking to yourself that that's overkill. Maybe you don't want to eat that many macarons. To you, I say, don't be a quitter. Anyway, I digress. So, this is my first macaron recipe based on ratios. As I have been doing the last several posts, I will show the ratios to you as well. I think this is especially helpful with macarons because your base ratio is egg whites. Do you know how hard it is to get an exact weight of egg whites????? I do. It's pretty difficult. Anyway, so if you want to follow the ratios, it doesn't matter what your egg white weight is because you can just figure out the rest from there!

So I found this website to be pretty helpful while trying to figure out
ratios and some techniques for macarons. I will give you the weights I used and the ratios for the basic ingredients for macarons. This particular recipe makes about 24 cookies (48 halves if you get what I mean).

For the Macaron Shells:
1 part egg whites - 64 grams (2 egg whites for me)
1.5 part almond flour - 96 grams (64 from egg whites x 1.5)
0.8 part granulated sugar - 51 grams
1.5 part powdered sugar - 96 grams

1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp cardamom * this is a little citrusy and a little warming and it's super nice
zest of 1 large lemon

1. In a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, start mixing egg whites. Don't mix them on too high of a speed (no higher than 6 on a kitchenaid). While this starts out, move to the second step.
2. Sift together almond flour, powdered sugar, and cardamom in a bowl. *I just put my bowl on my food scale and poured through my sifter until the right weight because I'm lazy.* Put aside until the egg whites are finished.
3. After the egg whites have started to foam up, add cream of tartar. *this is just to help stabilize the merengue, so you can leave it out if you want.
4. Start adding in the granulated sugar to the foamy egg whites a bit at a time. Let mixer keep whipping until you get to stiff peaks, like you see in the picture.
5. Once you have stiff peaks, gently fold in the lemon zest.
6. Pour in about half of your dry ingredients into the egg whites. You'd think you have to be gentle here because it's egg whites and you don't want to lose all that air. Nah. You can mix the shit of out of this; it's okay.
7. Pour the second half of dry ingredients in and keep mixing. Here I was a bit more gentle. You want to keep mixing until it looks glossy and it ribbons back on itself. The website I looked at said it should incorporate back into itself within 20 seconds or so. Here's a bit of me figuring out when it was ready.

8. Line baking sheet with silpat mat or parchment. *You will want to draw a circle template to pipe your macarons on to if you're using parchment;**You'll need at least two baking sheets with the parchment ***If you plan to make a lot of macarons, just invest in some mats. I bought mine on amazon for like 12 bucks for 2 mats.

9. Pour batter into a prepared piping bag with a large round tip. Pipe circles onto your parchment of silpat.
10. Whack the cookie sheet on the counter at least 3 times to get all the air bubbles out. *Again, you can whack them on the counter pretty hard.
11. Allow to sit at room temperature until they look matte and when you try to gently touch them with your finger, they don't stick. They form a skin on top. This can take between 20 minutes to an hour. In more humid months, this will take longer, but it's one of the most important steps! *also put them away from the edge of the table if you have a dog ;)

12. While you're waiting, preheat oven to 350F.
13. BEFORE you put them in the oven, drop to 325F. I would only bake one sheet at a time. I tried double once. It doesn't work out well. Anyway, bake for 12 - 14 minutes, but check at 10 minutes. If you can lightly touch it and the macaron doesn't move on it's base, it should be done.

14. Allow to cool completely before trying to remove from the sheet and fill.

For the Lemon Buttercream Filling:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1.5 (ish) cups powdered sugar
Zest of a lemon
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
A pinch of salt

1. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, put in butter. Slowly add powdered sugar into the butter.
2. Add lemon zest, juice, vanilla, and salt into the mix. Check for taste. If you feel like it needs a bit more powdered sugar, this is a good time to add it.

Assembly:
1. Put buttercream in a piping bag with a round tip *or any tip really- you do you, boo.
2. Pipe a dollop of cream on half the shells. *don't overdo it; you feel like it can take a lot more cream than it can. I was overzealous. **I feel like there's a that's what she said joke in there.

3. Put the other half of the shells on top of the buttercreamed shells.

4. You can store in the fridge. I don't do this. I just stored them in an air-tight container on the counter. I like them better this way, but most websites say to store in the fridge.